Thinking Outside The Gender

When did you first realize you are heterosexual?

This question may not apply to some of you following this blog. The point in asking is to remind us that we live in a society where sexual attraction is oriented between and among two genders – male and female – and that is considered the norm.

In fact, John Money of Johns Hopkins University, who studied congenital sexual-organ defects, estimated that 4% of births are “intersex.” That is:

• Hermaphrodites (one testicle and one ovary)
• Male pseudohermaphrodites (testes and some female genitalia but no ovaries)
• Female pseudohermaphrodites (ovaries and some male genitalia but not testes)

Based on the number of followers of this blog, that means one of you could be sporting a vagina and a penis!

Are you uncomfortable or intrigued?

If it’s the former, don’t worry. Our medical community is pretty set on “saving” intersex babies from a “life of misery.” Doctors use their “bio-power” to catch these “mistakes” at birth, surgically correct them and assign gender. Lord knows, we would not want any confusion on the birth certificates.

In her article, The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough, Anne Fausto-Sterling, imagines a more Utopian society where we would permit ambiguity about sexual difference in our culture. She acknowledges that raising intersex children in our current culture would be very difficult.

Next time you start to automatically check the “F” or “M” box on a form (especially when it is completely irrelevant), take the opportunity to think outside the gender box. Or maybe just write “who cares.”